Knights of pen & paper +1 Edition – Review

Fans of Dungeon and Dragons-esque games rejoice! Behold Studios has come up with a little gem that is meant to please all the fantasy absorbed nerds amongst us (in this case this is a positive thing). Knights of pen & paper, is a RPG-style game that aims to absorb the player not only in a table top style fantasy world, but also in the lives of players that often play such games. So it is a player pretending to be a player who in turns pretends to be a fantasy character (game-ception anyone?). So does Knights of pen & paper deliver a treasure worthy of those who are brave enough to delve into it? Or does it simply leave us with pixilated disoriented eyes? Read on to find out.

Story

There is no real story to Knights of pen & paper. The game itself is set around the table of people who are playing a table top. The player (you) has the choice between the typical fans of this game. The choice of your players not only affects the dialogue, which is often funny and self aware, but it also affects some abilities. You also have control over the dungeon master, who in turn has control over the scenario. Now the game they are playing is unnamed, but it’s safe to say that it is Dungeons & Dragons inspired. The game in the game doesn’t have much of a story either. It is more a collection of quests that are accompanied by a stereotypical background story. For example, the player starts the story in “default town”, this alone may be a reason for players to love the game. Personally, I love the way the game makes fun of its own and its genre.

Graphics

The graphics are your run of the mill pixilated wonders that most of us are used to from the old days.
So it’s certainly a far cry from the newest RPG games available on the market. But then again, it doesn’t need to be the newest RPG blistering with life-like boobs and “oh so hot” girls. It pulls us back to better days and they fit the game’s theme perfectly.

Sound

Like the graphics, the sound of Knights of pen & paper is also meant to be retro and nostalgic. No fancy orchestra, no “close to real life” sound. It does manage to put us back in time when the previously mentioned things didn’t exist yet. It does this fairly well: the sound is enjoyable, happy, and appropriate for the situation (for example: battle sounds that give that little extra push to pummel enemies into submission).

Gameplay

In Knights of pen and paper, you control two different aspects of one specific game. First you have control over the dungeon master, in other words: you decide which quests you will face and the difficulty of said quests. Which enemies you will face and the quantity of them, it’s all in the realm of the Dungeon master. One can opt to have weak enemies, but this will of course only yield minimum gain. Speaking of gain, Knights of pen and paper is like aforementioned a turn based RPG-style game, so this means that players can gain experience points and also currency. Currency can be used to buy in-game items, this of course is standard for any RPG. You can also buy currency, with real money and this will substantially make the game easier, but why would you? I find that it would take away most of the fun, since you are basically buying yourself the wins.

The second aspect of the game is of course: the players. You have choice between a healthy roster of people you would normally see play this sort of game (and apparently aliens too). The choice of these players, affect their passive abilities. For example: choosing the “bully”, will give your in-game in-game character a +1 offensive boost. After choosing your players, you will need to choose their role in the game. Typical classes as: paladin, wizard, rogue etc…, are part of the roster which you can choose from. The classes define your in-game active abilities and stats. The paladin class for example has an impressive 9 health points to start with instead of the usual 8. His abilities include: flash heal, which will heal 10 health points at the cost of 3 MP. So combining the bully with the paladin class will result in a tank that is capable of dishing out 2+1 damage, capable of instantly healing and has 9 health points.
Battle is fairly simple and turn based. Meaning there is no rush at all, nothing else is left to say here except: pure nostalgia.

Conclusion

Well Knights of pen & paper certainly brings back memories of days long forgotten. It’s full of pokes and inside jokes that true fans of the genre certainly will appreciate. This of course does not mean that you need to be a fan to enjoy the game. It is fairly capable to stand its own against its contemporaries, mostly because it has an endearing charm to it that most games nowadays don’t put any emphasis on. It’s like taking out your old game cartridges and the memories associated with them. I certainly recommend this game to anyone who has seen days in pixels.